The MOHCC motto “Equity and Quality in Health: Leaving no one behind” has been fulfilled during the just ended Second Phase of the COVID-19 vaccination blitz when the elderly and artisanal miners were vaccinated in an effort to ensure that the country attains 60 percent head immunity.
Ministry of Health and Child Care Matabeleland South Provincial Nursing Officer, Mrs. Joyce Sibanda said they had resorted to vaccinating artisanal miners early in the morning or in the evening so that they would not be excluded from the COVID-19 vaccination exercise.
“They can only be vaccinated between 6 and 7 in the evening as well as 6 and 7 in the morning before they go out. So you find out that besides the timetable that is already there, the teams out there have no timetable. This is called moonlight vaccination”, said the PNO.
Mrs. Sibanda pointed out that in Umzingwane District the vaccination teams also came up with what they termed the “bus stop” method where the elderly who could not travel to vaccination centers would be visited at a point close to their areas and then get vaccinated.
“Umzingwane District has also done the bus stop vaccination where the vaccination point is up the hill so the elderly cannot go up so they will be asked to group there and the teams will go out to vaccinate them. These are some of the extra duties that the nurses will do during the campaign,” said Mrs. Sibanda.
As a result of the bus stop and moonlight strategies, a significant number of people were vaccinated from the artisanal miners and the elderly groups.
